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Saturday, 26 November 2011

MANUKA HONEY

Manuka honey is a 'must' for us at home. Even though it originates from New Zealand, the first time we learned about it was when Mr. Hubby and I were on a holiday in a beautiful tropical city of Australia, Cairns, about 5-6 years ago. Since then, we cannot do without it especially during cooler days when we are more prone to colds and bacterial infections. We simply have a large teaspoonful generally in the morning when we feel that we are coming down with a cold etc (Note: when I say we, I exclude Miss Junior in this paragraph as she is too young to have honey yet. Please refer to my post titled WARNING: NO HONEY FOR BABIES -published on 11/11/2011- before deciding on whether to use honey for your children or not). Below is some factual information I've found after researching for detailed information on active manuka honey.

Manuka honey is a form of monofloral honey that’s created by honey bees as they gather nectar from the flowers of the manuka bush (Leptospermum Scoparium).

It is possibly the oldest known medicine. Aristotle (384-322 BC) said, "It’s good as a salve for sore eyes and wounds" and Dioscorides (50 AD) referred to it as "Good for all rotten and hollow ulcers".

In New Zealand, Professor Peter Molan of the University of Waikato believes manuka honey is as close as you'll get to a medical magic bullet. According to a source, he says: "When it comes to serious infections, Manuka honey is particularly valuable because it has a much better anti-bacterial activity than other honey. When I cut my finger with a chainsaw quite deeply, quite a wide cut, I just put honey straight on it, wrapped it up and kept on working for the rest of the day — there's not a mark on it".

According to professor Peter C Molan (MBE) BSc (Hons) Wales. PhD Liv. from New Zealand's University of Waikato, "It works on bacteria, fungi, protozoa. We haven't found anything it doesn't work on among infectious organisms."

Active Manuka honey is claimed to have 100 times more medicinal properties than the ordinary table honey. They have ratings and 10+ and higher are better than the ones with lower activity ratings such as 5+.